Glen Rose and Harmony Grove battled the weather and each other Tuesday in the opening of conference play.

In the end, the Beavers came out on top 10-4, and the Lady Beavers won 15-13.

Glen Rose softball head coach Kyle Lem said, “We had two opportunities to end the game on a run rule and didn’t, and, of course, they came back as always.”

Lem said the game was a “hard fought slugfest, just like it is every time. There’s just something between our two porgrams I guess.”

Harmony Grove softball head coach Sammi Massey was reached for comment, but did not respond by press time.

Madison Jacobs pitched all seven innings for the Lady Beavers, giving up all 13 runs on 12 hits and eight walks. Jacobs struck out two batters.

“I’ll take a win anyway we can get it,” Lem said. “It was nasty out there, and they hit the ball hard. She was a bulldog in the ring.”

The Lady Beavers (5-2, 1-0) led 6-2 after three innings, and then scored eight more in the fourth.

“We jumped out quick, but they owned the back end of the game,” Lem said.
Down 14-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Lady Cardinals scored three runs and three more in the sixth inning (after giving up one in between at bats) to cut the Lady Beavers’ lead to 15-8.

After holding Glen Rose scoreless in the top of the seventh inning, Harmony Grove rallied to score five runs, but still fell short 15-13.

Lem said the weather, which he laughingly described as “not very appeasing for softball” ... “played a huge factor on both sides. It was a sloppy game.”

Offensively for the Lady Beavers, Jacobs had two doubles and scored four times. Rebecca Tuggle had three runs-batted-in on a double and single. Tiffany Houpt had three hits — two singles and a double — and drove in two runs. Kylie Shepherd had a single and two RBIs.

After losing 11-6 to Arkadelphia on Monday, Lem said, “I think our kids took it personally, and they came out and played extremely hard.”

In the battle between the boys teams, Glen Rose (7-4, 1-0) was led on the mound by Collin Hunter, who pitched 5 2/3 innings and struck out nine batters. He gave up all four runs before Dylan Ray came in to pitch. Ray struck out four batters, including the last three he faced.

Glen Rose baseball head coach Chase Meyers said Tuesday’s conditions “slowed the game down, and we dragged. I think both teams showed that.”

He said, “I’m proud of them for battling through. For us, the focus of this entire season is to compete, compete, compete. That’s what we say before we leave the field, and we came out and we did that.”

The Cardinals (3-6, 0-1) saw a strong outing on the mound from Bodie Harris, who struck out seven, but a couple of errors in the seventh inning allowed the Beavers to pull ahead.

Harmony Grove head coach Brandon Kelly said, “We were mentally weak.”
He said, “The bottom line is we weren’t ready; we weren’t ready to play and it showed.”

Harmony Grove held a 3-1 lead going into the third inning, but allowed Glen Rose to score three in the third, one in the fourth and two in the fifth to give the Beavers a 7-3 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Harmony Grove scored one run, but it would be their last. Glen Rose scored three more runs in the top of the seventh inning to give themselves a 10-4 lead, where it would stay.

For Glen Rose, Brandon Kittell was 3-5 with three singles and two RBIs. Ray was 2-5 with a double, single and one RBI. Hunter went 2-5 with two singles and two RBIs. Blake Nesbitt was 2-4 with a double, single and two RBIs.

Michael Cotton was 1-4 with one RBI for Harmony Grove, and Rex Furry, who pitched the seventh inning, was 1-3 with a double.

Kelly said, “I’m hoping we can lick our wounds in practice and get ready for Sheridan on Thursday. It’s going to be tough. They’re a great program.”

Harmony Grove faces the Yellowjackets at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Sheridan, and then play a conference game at Episcopal at 4 p.m. Friday.

Both the Beavers and Lady Beavers play conference foe Cutter Morning Star at 4 p.m. Friday.